Benefits payable under the Pension Plan are based on employees’ years of service and compensation during the final 10 years of employment. The Compensation Committee of the Company’s Board of Directors (“Compensation Committee”) approved an amendment to freeze the Pension Plan effective September 30, 2017. After September 30, 2017, participants in the Pension Plan ceased accruing additional benefits for future service or compensation. Participants will retain benefits accumulated as of September 30, 2017 in accordance with the terms of the Pension Plan. In accordance with applicable accounting standards, the Pension Plan’s assets and liabilities were remeasured as of July 31, 2017, the date participants were notified of the freeze. This resulted in a reduction of the accrued pension liability of approximately $30.0 million and a curtailment gain of $31.6 million. The Compensation Committee approved the termination of the Pension Plan, effective June 1, 2019, and the Company intends to terminate the Pension Plan in a standard termination, as defined by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation. The Company is currently performing the administrative actions required to carry out the termination, with an expected completion date in 2020.

We also sponsor an unfunded defined benefit postretirement medical plan that previously covered substantially all employees, as well as Advisors. The medical plan is contributory with participant contributions adjusted annually. The medical plan does not provide for benefits after age 65 with the exception of a small group of employees that were grandfathered when such plan was established. During 2016, the Company amended this plan to discontinue the availability of coverage for any individuals who retire after December 31, 2016.

A reconciliation of the funded status of these plans and the assumptions related to the obligations at December 31, 2019, 2018 and 2017 are as follows:

The discount rate assumption used to determine the pension and other postretirement benefits obligations was based on the Aon Hewitt AA Only Above Median Yield Curve. This discount rate was determined separately for each plan by plotting the expected benefit payments from each plan against a yield curve of high quality, zero coupon bonds and calculating the single rate that would produce the same present value of liabilities as the yield curve.

In 2018, the Company implemented a new pension de-risking strategy designed to more closely match assets to the pension obligations by shifting exposure from return-seeking assets to liability-hedging assets. In 2019, the Company further shifted plan assets towards cash.

We determine the fair value of our Pension Plan assets using broad levels of inputs as defined by related accounting standards and categorized as Level 1, Level 2 or Level 3, as described in Note 4. The following tables summarize our Pension Plan assets as of December 31, 2019 and 2018.

The 6.00% expected long-term rate of return utilized after the Pension Plan freeze in 2017 reflected management’s expectations of long-term average rates of return on funds invested to provide for benefits included in the projected benefit obligations. The expected return was based on the outlook for inflation, fixed income returns and equity returns, while also considering historical returns, asset allocation and investment strategy. In 2018, we adjusted the expected long-term rate of return to 5.00% to reflect a further decrease to the Plan’s equity securities’ holdings based on expected investment mix at the beginning of the year. During 2018, we accelerated the de-risking strategy and as such, further reduced the long-term rate of return in 2019 to 4.00%.

The components of net periodic pension and other postretirement costs consisted of the following for the years ended December 31, 2019, 2018 and 2017:

The weighted average assumptions used to determine net periodic benefit cost for the years ended December 31, 2019, 2018 and 2017 are as follows:

Under current plan provisions, we expect the following benefit payments to be paid. For the Pension Plan, the timing of benefit payments does not include anticipated acceleration of payments for the plan termination, as the payment timing is based on the same assumptions used to measure the benefit obligation as of December 31, 2019, which does not reflect plan termination.


			Other
	Pension		Postretirement
	Benefits		Benefits
	(in thousands)
2020	$	8,947	158
2021		9,491	116
2022		9,164	99
2023		9,469	66
2024		9,770	66
2025 through 2029		50,283	143
	$	97,124	648

Our policy with respect to funding the Pension Plan is to fund at least the minimum required by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, as amended, and not more than the maximum amount deductible for tax purposes. No contributions were made to the Pension Plan for 2019 and all contributions for 2018 and 2017 were voluntary.

All Company contributions to other postretirement medical benefits are voluntary, as the postretirement medical plan is not funded and is not subject to any minimum regulatory funding requirements. The contributions for each year represent claims paid for medical expenses, and we anticipate making the 2020 expected contribution with cash generated from operations. Participants also made contributions to the postretirement plan for the years ended December 31, 2019, 2018 and 2017.

For measurement purposes, the initial health care cost trend rate was 7.60% (prior to age 65) and 8.70% (subsequent to age 65) for 2019, 8.05% (prior to age 65) and 9.30% (subsequent to age 65) for 2018 and 7.02% (prior to age 65) and 8.47% (subsequent to age 65) for 2017. The health care cost trend rate reflects anticipated increases in health care costs. The initial growth rates for 2019 are assumed to gradually decline over the next 8 years to a rate of 4.5%.

At December 31, 2019, the accrued pension and postretirement liability recorded in the consolidated balance sheet was comprised of a pension liability of $2.6 million and a liability for postretirement benefits in the amount of $0.6 million. The current portion of postretirement liability of $0.1 million is included in other current liabilities on the consolidated balance sheet. At December 31, 2018, the pension asset and postretirement liability recorded in the consolidated balance sheet was comprised of a pension asset of $8.5 million and a liability for postretirement benefits in the amount of $0.8 million. The current portion of postretirement liability of $0.3 million is included in other current liabilities on the consolidated balance sheet.